Professor at Nyack College, 2002
(Revised from an article originally published in the Korea Times U.S. edition, December 17, 2002)
As I meditate on Scripture, I often encounter passages that are difficult to grasp. One of the most challenging is the declaration that God loves a single soul more than the whole world. We repeat this truth frequently, yet when we pause to consider it, the statement feels illogical. In the world we know, no nation or institution exists for the sake of one individual; they exist for the whole. Even in pastoral ministry, when we encounter someone who seems harmful or disruptive to the church, we wonder whether this verse can truly apply. Scripture teaches us to build up the church—and the church represents the collective body, does it not?
Yet in recent days, I have begun learning God’s Word in a new way. Not through study alone, but through lived experience. Bit by bit, truths I once accepted as mere doctrine are becoming vivid and personal. The passage that now grips my heart most deeply is God’s confession that He loves one soul more than the entire world.
The turning point came through a gift God recently entrusted to our family—our grandson Josiah. As I look at this child, born through my daughter, who is flesh of my flesh, I am beginning to understand, through the depth of my love for him, how profoundly God must love each soul created in His image. When I watch Josiah suffer because of the condition he was born with, every pain that touches this innocent life feels as though it cuts through my own heart. And so I can now say without hesitation: “At this moment, I love this one soul, Josiah, more than the whole world.”
My hopes for him are simple. I want only that he grow up healthy, without further hardship, and enjoy the life God has given him in an ordinary, wholesome way. I believe God had the same simple hope when He sent each of us into the world. God looks upon every person with the heart of a Father who loves one soul more than the whole world. He is the God who rejoices over even my least progress, who grieves when I am discouraged, who suffers when I suffer. To have such a God as my Father is a blessing greater than anything this world could offer.
From Manhattan,
